Jewish Women's Archive - Gender Studieshttp://jwa.org/blog/gender-studies
enMourdock, Menses, and Breastshttp://jwa.org/blog/mourdock-menses-and-breasts
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<div class="field-item even"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/bra-hanging"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/bra_hanging.jpg?itok=0BUmIcAx" width="300" height="408" alt="Bra Hanging" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 300px;"><a href="/media/bra-hanging" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner">Photo by Betsy Roe and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library via Flickr.</div></div></div></div>
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<div class="field-item even"><p><strong>Here We Go Again.</strong> Add Mourdock to the Akin mixology, shake, and serve on the rocks. Read the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/10/24/mourdock-god-intended-for-babies-to-result-from-rape/" target="_blank">article in <em>The Washington Post</em></a> and hear his words, spoken in the moment.</p>
<p><strong>Picture This: </strong>Is the <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/08/04/thylane-blondeau-and-other-young-model-controversies-photos.html#slide" target="_blank">exploitation and sexualization of girls in the media</a> another form of trafficking? Trafficking to the living room coffee table? Or could this be, in some altered sense, a form of empowerment?</p>
<p><strong>Exploring Role Reversal:</strong> If a man were forced to have sex against his will and in the process his semen fertilized an egg, would any man call that “G-d’s intent”? If boys were encouraged to pose seductively, wouldn’t the nation be up in arms, shouting pedophilia? Check out <a href="/feminism/_html/JWA067.htm">Gloria Steinem’s</a> oldy but goody, <a href="http://www.mum.org/ifmencou.htm" target="_blank">“If Men Could Menstruate,”</a> which gives us some perspective by flipping the equation.</p>
<p><strong>Some Women See Red Amidst the October Pink:</strong></p>
<p>~ Jessica Luther writes in "No more Save the Tatas, please": “So, this October, this month of Breast Cancer Awareness, PLEASE remember that we are focused on this because we want to SAVE THE WOMEN. We want to SAVE PEOPLE. We want to SAVE LIVES. Tatas – those would be nice to save if it’s possible. But forget saving the tatas if you lose the woman.” <a href="http://flyoverfeminism.com/no-more-save-the-tatas-please/" target="_blank">Read more on <em>Flyover Feminism</em></a></p>
<p>~ Lisa Hix writes in "Breast Intentions": “My Facebook mansplainers also believe that objectification isn't troublesome. I was informed, ‘Every person with a brain and a bit of sense realizes you cannot have a ta-ta without a person.’ O RLY? 'And I appreciate the intent of the article, but aren't we taking ourselves a little too seriously?’ No, I'd say a woman who's lost a friend to breast cancer gets to be as humorless as she wants.” <a href="http://jezebel.com/breast-intentions/" target="_blank">Read more on <em>Jezebel</em></a></p>
<p>~ Please learn more about the SCAR Project, whose <a href="http://www.thescarproject.org/mission/" target="_blank">mission</a> is to put "a raw, unflinching face on early onset breast cancer while paying tribute to the courage and spirit of so many brave young women." View portraits from the project, in the form of a slide show, which shows women survivors with their breasts and scars exposed. This is, for many, <a href="http://www.thescarproject.org/gallery/" target="_blank">what surviving breast cancer looks like. </a></p>
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Wed, 24 Oct 2012 17:00:59 +0000gorcha16374 at http://jwa.orgNothing to Fear Here, It’s Just a Little Feminismhttp://jwa.org/blog/nothing-to-fear-here-it-s-just-little-feminism
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<div class="field-item even"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/desks-for-feminism-in-academia"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/desks_2.jpg?itok=2xsbYsR_" width="300" height="217" alt="Desks for Feminism in Academia" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 300px;"><a href="/media/desks-for-feminism-in-academia" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner">Photo by Christopher Sessums (cdsessums) via Flickr.</div></div></div></div>
<div class="field-item odd"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/feminist-fist"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/fem_fist_power.jpg?itok=yoEa1Ida" width="300" height="437" alt="Feminist Fist" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 300px;"><a href="/media/feminist-fist" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner">Photo by ludwig van standard lamp via Flickr.</div></div></div></div>
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<div class="field-item even"><p>After five years of functioning within the pseudo-reality of “Big A” Academia, I often ponder questions of identity formation and self-understanding. In the process of studying the Jewish American immigrant experience and conceptualizing women as agents for sociopolitical change, I find myself asking questions about my own identity and how future scholars will define the major factors in the twenty-first century narrative.</p>
<p>So far, I have established a few points: I am a proud member of what some call the “millennial” generation. Women my age are the direct beneficiaries of feminist action and advocacy. For the most part, we have never known state-sanctioned sex-based discrimination on the same level as experienced by the generations of women before us.</p>
<p>Yet, for many of my female peers, feminism is a dirty word: a word to be used sparingly and with the upmost caution for fear of being misunderstood. Additionally, some fear being identified with “undesirable” traits such as aggressive behavior or radicalism.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I came to this realization from personal experience and discussion with fellow students. The men in my classes were more than willing to embrace feminism, whereas the women were hesitant and even disdainful of the very word itself.</p>
<p>One discussion, in particular, shook my previous understanding of feminist identity as the natural state for educated women. Towards the tail end of my undergraduate education, I belonged to a Jewish Studies research cohort which consisted of students from various socio-economic-cultural backgrounds and disciplines within the university. We came together to pursue our own individual research projects within the field of Jewish Studies while also using the cohort to facilitate discussions focusing on Jewish identity, history, and experience at large.</p>
<p>On the last day of class, one of the professors posed this question to my largely-female cohort: “Do you consider yourself a feminist?” Within seconds, most of the young women in the room responded in the negative.</p>
<p>I was shocked. Speechless, even, possibly for the first time in my entire life.</p>
<p>Sitting around the table with me was the very evidence of how far women have come in the last century. We were a wonderfully motley crew of women who could confidently discuss issues ranging from historiography and national memory to identity formation and surrealist painting. We were thriving within a co-ed university structure and breaking into disciplines which, traditionally, belonged exclusively to the menfolk.</p>
<p>When pressed for further clarification, a number of my classmates said that feminism had such a negative connotation surrounding it that they actively chose not to use the word at all. Ignore the fact that these women were, in action and in belief, actually feminists.</p>
<p>Immediately after this discussion, larger questions grew in my mind: Why is it that an ever increasing amount of men are willing to identify as feminists, yet so many women shy away from even using the word? More specifically, what scared the livin’ feminism out of these ladies and how the heck can we get back to the state where feminism is a point of pride?</p>
<p>Quite simply, there is no danger in men declaring themselves feminists. Some people will even applaud a male for being progressive if he chooses to list “feminist” amongst his many identifiers. A woman, on the other hand, is not viewed as enlightened if she openly takes pride in the fact that feminism allows for choices and opportunity, for equality of the sexes without caveat. Women, as I witnessed throughout my college years, are expected to embrace the feminist cause in spite of societal misrepresentations of what a feminist “looks like” or how she may behave. Thus, even in academic circles, female students are afraid to be seen as overly aggressive or protective of their rights. Some are hesitant to be proud of the women whose efforts lead to a greater societal expectation and acceptance of equality.</p>
<p>The entire situation is simultaneously tragic, hypocritical, and yet completely rectifiable. We cannot allow self-consciousness to strong-arm us into denying our right to equality. Women can easily connect to the feminist identity if we stop defining feminism in the negative, unappealing terms society throws at us. Feminism, at its very core, is all about choices rather than forced positions, right? Then let’s make a choice to define for ourselves what feminism means in the twenty-first century. Let’s take pride in the very fact that feminism allows us to choose for ourselves what we want from life, what we need to feel satisfied within our roles as friends, lovers, mothers and students of that intimidating thing called existence.</p>
<p>Running from the word merely compounds the difficulty surrounding feminism as a concept and complicates the ability of future generations to proudly say, “Yes, I am a feminist and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Rather than shy away from feminist identity, we must complicate and challenge the negative imagery society attaches to the word. If we can adapt feminism without dismissing the past or being embarrassed about our decision, then feminism as both a word and a concept is no longer dirty. Rather, it will become infinitely more meaningful through its complexity and become a point of pride for female and male students alike.</p>
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<a href="/topics/feminism">Feminism</a>, <a href="/topics/womens-studies">Women&#039;s Studies</a>Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:36:07 +0000gorcha16368 at http://jwa.orgFriday Social Media BliNtz (Week 2)http://jwa.org/blog/friday-social-media-blintz-week-2-0
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<div class="field-item even"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/blau-marietta-still-image"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/Blau-Marietta.jpg?itok=zHTNk_n1" width="300" height="234" alt="Blau, Marietta - still image [media]" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 300px;"><a href="/media/blau-marietta-still-image" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner"><p>Nuclear physicist Marietta Blau appears here at the Institute for Radium Research in Vienna, about the year 1925.</p><p>Institution: Agnes Rodhe</p></div></div></div></div>
<div class="field-item odd"><div class="jwa-media image "><a href="/media/emma-goldman-3"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/files/styles/scale_width_300px/public/mediaobjects/egport4.jpg?itok=_8--KlXp" width="300" height="213" alt="Emma Goldman" /></a><div class="caption" style="width: 300px;"><a href="/media/emma-goldman-3" class="object-details-link"><img src="/sites/jwa.org/themes/jwawesome/images/img_trans.png" class="sprite sprite-search" alt="Full image"></a><div class="caption-inner">Emma Goldman</div></div></div></div>
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<div class="field-item even"><p>Welcome to week two of the Friday Social Media BliNtz— like a blitz but tastier.</p>
<p>So, this week in the media, the social and the science intersect when Harvard med student Ilana Yurkiewicz blogs about a groundbreaking study lead by Corinne Moss-Racusin and colleagues, which reveals that gender bias in science is real. </p>
<p>An important take-away from <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/unofficial-prognosis/2012/09/23/study-shows-gender-bias-in-science-is-real-heres-why-it-matters/" target="_blank">Yurkiewicz’s analysis in the <em>Scientific American:</em></a> Both male and female scientists were equally guilty of committing gender bias. But there is hope! Yurkiewicz writes:“As troubling as these results are, they are also critical toward solutions. That biases against women are often subconscious means people need extra prodding to realize and combat them. I’m willing to bet that many in the study, just like people who take Implicit Association Tests, would be upset to learn they subconsciously discriminate against women, and they would want to fix it. Implicit biases cannot be overcome until they are realized, and this study accomplishes that key first step: awareness.”</p>
<p>JWA has extensively chronicled women in science—women who carved their way during a time when the field was far more inhospitable and far less aware. Whether your interest is in physics or biology, chemistry or anatomy you can <a href="/encyclopedia/keywords">check out these trailblazing women</a> ——simply scroll through the list of topics and single click on “science.” Some women to spotlight: <a href="/encyclopedia/article/bonne-tamir-batsheva">geneticist Batsheva Bonne-Tamir,</a> who for over 40 years has studied genetic markers and disease among different population groups in Israel; <a href="/encyclopedia/article/blau-marietta">nuclear physicist Marietta Blau</a> who received recommendation from Albert Einstein; <a href="/encyclopedia/article/berg-raissa-lvovna">biologist and geneticist Raissa Berg</a> defender of human rights in the Soviet Union, as well as an abstract painter and writer.</p>
<p>Yesterday <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/clinton-contraception-poor-women-halved_n_1917170.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003" target="_blank"><em>The Huffington Post</em> </a>reported that former president Clinton, Bill and Melinda Gates, and NYC Mayor Bloomberg announced that contraception prices in developing nations will be halved. This follows a July Family Planning Summit in which 4.6 billion was dedicated to family planning. Melinda Gates has stated that family planning costs approximately one-sixth of what is spent on housing, health care, and public services. That really puts things in perspective.</p>
<p>For a tight historical perspective on the <a href="/encyclopedia/article/birth-control-movement-in-united-states">birth control movement on our own soil</a> from the 1870’s to the 1960’s check out our encyclopedia article. Hats off to our foremothers who championed reproductive rights on our behalf-- Sanger, Goldman, Levine, Moses-- making it possible for us to determine when and how we want to be mothers ourselves.</p>
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Fri, 28 Sep 2012 16:35:25 +0000gorcha16309 at http://jwa.orgMale and Female Deodorant: A comparative studyhttp://jwa.org/blog/male-and-female-deodorant-comparative-study-on-desire
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<div class="field-item even"><p>I was watching the <em>Daily Show </em>online over the weekend and I was fascinated with the commercials, two in particular, which streamed almost back to back. Maybe you saw these commercials too. They're good. They're entertaining. I liked the music. It kept me focused for the entire 30 seconds.</p>
<p>And it made me think. </p>
<p>Not about AXE shower products for men, or about Degree deodorant for women, but about gender, about sex, about the desires and fears that differ between men and women.</p>
<p>You need to watch this:</p>
<p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hvWAnkgMRV0?rel=0" width="640"></iframe></p>
<p>Take stock. Assess. What are you thinking? What feelings do this commercial trigger?</p>
<p>For me it generates a whole onslaught of questions. For example:</p>
<p>- If you Showerpool, are you really going to end up <em>saving</em> water? (Because you know... one thing often leads to another in the shower...) </p>
<p>- Are men actually taking the "pledge"? And are women actually saying yes?</p>
<p>- Why would I question whether women are saying "yes"; couldn't they be just as excited about the AXE Showerpooling challenge as men? Women are sexual beings too...</p>
<p>- But, you know as well as I, that if the roles were reversed and Degree promoted the challenge for women to invite men to shower... those women would be called sluts (often by the men who just finished showering with them). </p>
<p>- I just need to say this: FOUR women and ONE man? Come on! </p>
<p>- I was struck by this flagrant (and sad) moment in the trailer from 0:14 - 0:17 : "How can you save water without massive personal sacrifice?"-- and then the words "personal sacrifice" come crashing down, only to be enveloped by a veto sign. Why shirk sacrifice? (We are a people intimate with sacrifice--from the times of the Temples to the present). It's in this moment that AXE breaks through the sheen of "doing good" and unapologetically reveals its (and our) true motives. But it doesn't seem to matter because the Showerpooling concept is so damn sexy.</p>
<p>- The campaign was unveiled September 17th; you KNOW this is targeted to campus co-eds. I wonder what this means for women. Are we going to see a parallel of the 1960's when women would wait by their family's landline for an invitation to the prom, only now college girls will be checking their smart phones for an invitation to shower with the cutie from Astronomy 101? </p>
<p>- A departure from the questions... I need to give AXE some serious cred for nailing the heterosexual male fantasy... and making it socially acceptable for men to act on it... <em>and</em> making millions of dollars in the process. Rather brilliant.</p>
<p>*Further investigation (by visiting the AXE homepage) revealed a step-by-step procedure to take the AXE Showerpooling pledge. Get ready, there are three important steps: 1) Install a water-efficient showerhead and use 20% less water each time you shower. 2) Reduce your showering time to five minutes or less. 3) Invite a friend to get in on the action. Oh AXE, you a wily brand-- covering your legal tushy with that fine print. </p>
<p>In wrapping this up, I'd like to share <a href="http://www.degreedeodorant.com/en/women/Products/">the companion piece-- the yin</a> to the AXE yang. When you reach the Degree homepage, click the little embedded video icon under the title "Unapologetically STRONG." And then come back!</p>
<p>You're back! Welcome back!</p>
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Interesting, nu? Who would have thought that so much is revealed from our fears of smelling bad.</div>
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Here is my comparative gender analysis of male/female desire through the lens of bath products: <strong>Men want women. And women want... to be like men.</strong></div>
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What are your thoughts? Do you agree? </div>
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<a href="/topics/advertising-and-marketing">Advertising and Marketing</a><a href="/tags/gender-and-sexuality">Gender and Sexuality</a>, <a href="/tags/axe">Axe</a>, <a href="/tags/degree">Degree</a>Mon, 24 Sep 2012 17:39:00 +0000gorcha16294 at http://jwa.orgMaking Space for Anti-Feminists . . .http://jwa.org/blog/NeW
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<div class="field-item even"><p>What do you think about NEW, Network of Enlightened Women? If you haven’t heard of it, they’re a group of conservative female college students, founded in 1994 by UVA student Karen Agness. They are “dedicated to fostering the education and leadership skills of conservative university women.” What does that mean? It means they think the Vagina Monologues “glorifies” rape; feel that women’s studies “unfairly paints men as evil” and “ignores differences between the sexes,” and have a major problem with modern feminism.</p>
<p>It’d be easy to rip into them, given that everything they stand for is utterly offensive to me. I certainly wouldn’t be the first blog writer to attack them for trying to set women back 30 years. But, instead, I would like to take the road less traveled and tell you what impresses me about the group. Yep, you heard me.</p>
<p>1. They are good at organizing. They started on the UVA campus and have now spread to seven colleges in seven states including Idaho, Iowa, Ohio, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Alabama. Young conservative women in the northeast are currently trying to start them at their own campuses.</p>
<p>2. They understand the importance of women having their own space. Agness has said that she “hopes the group will serve as a sanctuary from college Republican and other conservative clubs,” which she says tend to be “male-dominated, career-oriented and not focused on issues of concern to women.” I give her props for figuring out how to create a place where women can run their own agenda.</p>
<p>3. They are right that campus women's studies departments do pretty much “ignore conservative women and their views in the syllabi and in class discussions.” That was the case, certainly, at the colleges I went too. There should be room for dialogue in women’s studies, just as there should be room for women to make all sorts of choices within feminism.</p>
<p>It is all-too-easy to dismiss and attack these young women who threaten my values and so much of what I stand for. But if we as feminists really believe in the right to choose, then we have to allow for women voicing opinions that we don’t like. So while I won’t be rooting for NeW anytime soon, I believe there is room for them.</p>
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<a href="/topics/feminism">Feminism</a>, <a href="/topics/womens-studies">Women&#039;s Studies</a>, <a href="/topics/organizations-and-institutions">Organizations and Institutions</a><a href="/tags/network-of-enlightened-women-new">Network of Enlightened Women (NEW)</a>Thu, 13 Jul 2006 18:33:35 +0000d7admin13531 at http://jwa.org